1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an electro-optical device such as a liquid crystal device, to an electro-optical device manufactured by the method, and to an electronic apparatus including the electro-optical device, such as a liquid crystal projector.
2. Related Art
In an electro-optical device manufactured by this manufacturing method, alignment of an electro-optical material which is interposed between a pair of substrates bonded to each other by a sealing material is controlled by an inorganic alignment film formed on a substrate surface opposite to the electro-optical material in one substrate between the pair of substrates. When the electro-optical device is manufactured, the inorganic alignment film is formed by an oblique evaporation method.
Here, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 8-53755, a technique for depositing ferromagnetic metal on a high molecular film using the oblique evaporation method is disclosed. According to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 8-53755, when the ferromagnetic metal is disposed by using a high incident angle component and a low incident angle component, ionized oxygen gas is injected into the high incident angle component to ionize the ferromagnetic metal, so that the adhesion efficiency of the ferromagnetic metal is improved.
However, in the inorganic alignment film formed on the substrate surface using the oblique evaporation method, for example, since a dangling bond exists in the surface and inside thereof, an electrically unstable defect portion is generated and thus high film quality cannot be obtained. In the electrically unstable defect portion of the inorganic alignment film, for example, water reacts to form a hydroxyl group. Also, a component of the sealing material coated on the inorganic alignment film may react to the hydroxyl group causing a contamination material to be diffused into the inorganic alignment film. When the contamination material is diffused in the inorganic alignment layer, the alignment of the electro-optical material may not be normally controlled. Also, instead of or in addition to diffusion of the contamination material, in the defect portion, the alignment of the electro-optical material cannot be controlled by an electrical change. When the alignment failure occurs, display image quality of the electro-optical device is deteriorated by light leakage.
Furthermore, the inorganic alignment film is formed of an inorganic material which has a low film density and is likely to absorb moisture, such as silica (SiO2). Accordingly, the electro-optical material may come in contact with a pixel electrode contained in a base of the inorganic alignment film. Also, moisture that is absorbed into the inorganic alignment film is diffused into the inorganic alignment film and may permeate into the pixel electrode of the base causing damage the pixel electrode.
As a result, the yield of the process of manufacturing the electro-optical device decreases and it is difficult to increase the life span of the electro-optical device.